Junior Soccer Round-Up

Short of five players, Baildon had to field regular goalkeeper Danny Morton in midfield and midfielder Simon Malyon as a central defender.

Both put in superb displays as Baildon turned in one of their best performances of the season against improving Thornton.

The victory was built on a fine defensive display with the back four of Daniel Price, Malyon, Nathan Barber and James Swain playing with great discipline, while goalkeeper James Miller did everything that was asked of him.

In wet, sticky conditions, Baildon looked the sharper in the early stages, but it was 25 minutes before they went ahead. Chris Reardon beat the off-side trap and though his shot stuck in the mud, Calum Cullen followed up to force the ball home.

This somewhat messy score was followed by the best goal of the game. Left-back James Swain sent a defence splitting crossfield ball to Reardon on the right, who beat his man, took the ball to the byline and crossed for Morton to meet it first time giving the goalkeeper no chance.

An ugly tackle by the Thornton goalkeeper on Reardon led to both players receiving extensive treatment but the incident went unpunished.

Though two up at half-time, Baildon could not relax and shortly after the re-start Thornton hit the woodwork.

However, Baildon then got on top and the goals flowed. Reardon got a hat-trick, Morton and Cullen added further goals and Ben Moutrie also got on the scoresheet.

Halfway through the second-half, Thornton's goalkeeper had to go off as a result of the injury from the first-half and an ambulance was called. While the whole team played well, the man-of-the-match for Baildon went to Malyon.

Menston U-15s 3 Burley U-15s 2

MENSTON Hotshots beat local rivals Burley 3-2 at the weekend in an entertaining game which brought an end to Burley's winning sequence and saw Menston move to the top of the table..

Menston attacked from the start and took an early lead in highly unusual circum-stances.

Menston goalkeeper Nick Keinhorst sent a massive kick towards the Burley goal which flew past the advancing goalkeeper Jonathan Woolley after taking a wicked bounce in the area.

Menston continued to put pressure on Burley with Rory McPhee, Joe Hendrie, Chris Noble and Ben Kershaw all missing good opportunities before Burley's George Wright pulled the home team level with a rare venture into the Menston half. He began a solo run on the halfway line, dribbled past several opposition defenders, looked about to be tackled in the penalty area but stuck out a foot just in time to drive the ball neatly into the corner of the goal.

Though Burley grew noticeably in confidence thereafter, they were not able to keep Menston fully at bay. Burley's failing to clear a corner provided James Gilhooly with the chance to restore Menston's lead late in the half smashing a shot through a crowded box.

The second-half proved to be as tight as the first. Burley's George Wright, normally a defender but playing up front in the absence of Phil Buckley and Ryan Scannell, collected the ball in the penalty area, jinked to his left and slotted a neat left-footer into the far corner of the net.

For a time it looked as if Burley might pull off an upset, with Laurie Swan and Danny Holden particularly strong and sound in defence and Menston making no real inroads. Tom Lee and Dario De Vito went close for league leaders Menston.

However, as time ran out, Chris Cooke bundled in a third goal for Menston to give his team a deserved 3-2 win on the afternoon.

Burley fought harder and harder to gain an equaliser when Swan headed down and Adam Rhodes struck the ball just wide of the post. Burley's Man-of-the-Match Woolley pulled off a spectacular diving save.

Ilkley Yellows U-9s 6 Collingham 0

Ilkley Under-9 Yellows returned to winning ways on Saturday with an emphatic victory over Collingham.

In a good team performance the boys worked hard for each other and put together some fine passing moves, to warm the spectators on a bitterly cold morning.

Callum Bott, William Marshall and Jake Norton controlled the game with good passing and supported their defence whenever Collingham threatened.

Kieran Mitchell gave a livewire performance in attack and it came as no surprise when he wriggled free of his defender to fire Ilkley into the lead. Kieran continued to torment the Collingham defenders in the first-half as he scored a further three goals, demonstrating his range of attacking skills to give Ilkley a 4-0 half-time lead.

There was no respite for Coll-ingham when, at the start of the second-half, a long strike from Nick Jenkinson slipped through the visiting 'keeper's grasp.

A fine passing move ending with a well-taken James Crowther goal completed the scoring. George Grant and Sam Walker had kept the Collingham attackers firmly in their pockets. Other goals could easily have followed in the closing stages, but Ilkley were happy to settle for a 6-0 win. In a good team performance Man-of the-Match went to Kieran Mitchell for his first-half goal scoring prowess.

In the following friendly match a mixed squad of Ilkley Blues and Yellows ran out 3-1 winners.

Ilkley U-9s Yellows 14 Horsforth Dynamos 0

Ilkley Under-9s celebrated reaching top spot in the league by running riot over Horsforth Dynamos on a cold and wet Sunday morning.

Horsforth's cause was hardly helped by an early injury to their goalkeeper but by then Ilkley were already a couple of goals to the good.

Jake Norton had too much strength and control on the ball for the visiting defenders and went on to score four quality first-half goals. Kieran Mitchell, his usual razor sharp self, helped himself to another two goals, to take the half-time score to 6-0.

The second-half continued in the same vein. George Grant, allowed the luxury of playing further up the field, shot four good goals, James Crowther chipped in with one, Nick Jenkinson two and William Marshall one.

If it had not been for the heroics of Horsforth's stand-in 'keeper, who made countless excellent saves, the scoreline could well have had us reaching for the record books. Credit must be given to the Horsforth players who never let their heads drop and kept trying to the end.

For Ilkley though it was Christmas come early, with contributions from all the squad, including, Sam Walker, Richard Barker, birthday boy Bradley Lawson, Callum Bott and Edward Bullock.